When we were planning this ride a while ago, Liz asked me what I learned from riding across in 2019. Here are a few thoughts:
Great tires are worth their weight in gold. The most common repair you’ll have to do is fix a flat. That is an easy enough job BUT your biking life will be better if you don’t have flats. When I rode the Southern Tier in 2019, I decided I would use the best touring tires I could to minimize flats. I used 700x35 Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires with tire liners and Slime tubes. I don’t know if I just got lucky but those tires never had a flat in 3 years and more than 8,000 miles of riding. Tires that never go flat are great things.
Be able to do common repairs. When you’re touring, you are often far from a bike shop. And by far I mean far like 3 days riding. So you must have spare parts, tools and the ability to repair things. During my ride through TX, my front rack lost a bolt and collapsed on my front tire. Fortunately I brought enough nuts and bolts so I could quickly get things back in riding shape. And once the rear derailleur on my buddy’s bike got bent out of alignment in the hills of west TX. He was able to realign and tighten everything so we could keep going.
Get rid of excess gear. You think you need a lot of stuff before you begin riding. As you ride and carry your gear, you realize that stuff is heavy and bicycling requires very little stuff. And the stuff you really need can be cleaned every day and reused. Biking is a lot like life.
Clean & lube your chain once/week. Chains do a lot of work and they get dirty and greasy. Would it kill you to degrease and lube that poor thing? I don’t think so. A clean chain is a quiet and happy chain.
It’s not about the bike. You think about your bike a lot when you know you have to rely on it to go a few thousand miles. Super duper carbon fiber frames or top of the line components might be nice but if the bike is capable and reliable and your saddle is comfortable, that all you need.
It’s not about being super fit. Riding 4,000 miles is a big deal but riding a bike for 5 or 6 hours a day is not superhero level work. It's just like going to work every day.
It’s about grit and perseverance. Some days riding is a breeze. Other days you have to dig deep for hours on end and push through challenges, like cold and wind and rain and hills. It’s just you and the bike and you simply grind out the miles.
You will make it over the mountain. Every cyclist knows the struggle of riding up hills is a metaphor for life. Riding up a mountain is exhausting and painful. But the pain will end. It always does. There’s always a summit. You’ve just got to keep going and then the earth rewards you with the gift of gravity.
Enjoy the ride. The USA is an enormous and enormously beautiful country. We all hear a lot of grim news about our cities but they are an incredibly SMALL part of this country. It’s easy to lose sight of that. Rural USA, the heart of our country, is full of beautiful places and friendly people. Everyone should get the chance to travel the country at 12 miles per hour. You simply can’t not enjoy it.
We are 10 days from our start and I’ve got to pinch myself. How lucky am I? I get to bicycle across this country twice in my life. Most people never get a chance to do it even once. And this time I get to do it with Liz, one of the best daughters a guy could ever have and Susan, the love of my life for the last 45 years. I’m going to enjoy this like crazy.
